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22 Prince of Wales Terrace W8
THE ATHENÆUM
Dear Col. Buchan,
I have been reading your "Cromwell" with much interest & admiration, and have been prompted to send the enclosed letter which appears in to day's Times, for I thought your chapter on Cromwell in Ireland was particularly just & well balanced.
By the way in one footnote (p.283? - I haven't the book to refer to) you say that the story
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of Cromwell's intercepting a letter of Charles which decided him to get his blow in first, was probably derived from Broghill (Orrery). You are quite correct. In going through the [Carte] M.S in the Bodleian two years ago I found or rather came across a letter of Broghill's giving an account of Cromwell's explaining to him, one night when he was in an expansive mood, the discovery of Charles's design to get him out of the way and thus compelling him to take action. Unfortunately I didn't copy the letter or note the reference & the [Carte] M.S.S are a prodigious
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mass to wade through even with the help of the Bodleian people. I wonder if Broghill's account - he was an appalling scoundrel from the Irish standpoint, but a most capable soldier, like [Buckingham?] - has ever been published. I am sure your book is meeting with the great success it deserves.
Yours sincerely
MF O'Dwyer
P.S. The Col. Ed. O'Dwyer referred
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to in my letter, held the field against the Parliament till Mar 1652, when he made a "Treaty" at Cahir with Cromwell's Governor - Col. Sankey - allowing him to take his brigade abroad. He took 4000 men to the service of Condé & Cromwell sent a letter to the King of Spain that he should be given command of his brigade. He & most of his men were killed in storming Arras in Aug. 1654
